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Health Care Capsule: Treatment for Drug Misuse

GAO-25-107640 Published: Oct 03, 2024. Publicly Released: Oct 03, 2024.
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Fast Facts

U.S. drug overdose deaths have increased dramatically in recent years. Many deaths are from the use of illegal drugs or misuse of prescription drugs. This Health Care Capsule summarizes our work on drug misuse treatment in the U.S.

We've found several challenges to getting treatment and identified ways to help, including:

Addressing health care workforce shortages and increasing treatment availability

Increasing access for vulnerable populations, for example, by reaching people living in rural areas with mobile treatment units

Making it easier to get insurance coverage for treatment, such as by no longer requiring prior authorization

Prescription drug bottles and syringes on a table

Highlights

This capsule draws from a number of GAO reports to highlight our work on the effects of drug misuse on certain populations, treatment availability, and related barriers to accessing treatment. In this capsule, GAO cites areas for improvement for expanding access to drug misuse treatment.

For more information, contact Alyssa M. Hundrup at 202-512-7114 or hundrupa@gao.gov.

Full Report

Full Report (2 pages)

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Topics

Health Care
AddictionDeathsSubstance abuseSubstance abuse treatmentDrug controlDrug overdoseHealth careHealth insuranceHigh-risk listMortality